Day 4


EFL537, Cohort#3,
Day #4, November 5, 2009
Good Morning.  I hope everyone got some sleep last night - I saw quite a few night owls working on the site today.   Before getting to today's To Do list, I'd like you to read these assorted comments...
  • I didn't expect you to finish all of the Week#1 skills yesterday.  My hope is that most of you can finish them by the end of Week#1. 
  • If you want to know if I've seen your work, I am keeping a record of everything I've seen on this spreadsheet.  By the time class begins today (9am), I plan to have it updated. It can take up to 24 hours before  I see something, so please don't ask me why something is not checked there if you finished it five minutes ago. Unfortunately, because of the amount of work you are doing and the shortage of time in a two week course, I won't always be able to make comments or offer feedback on all assignments, but will do so as often as I can. 
  • If something you've done is not there or if you want to ask me if something you've just completed is OK, pleeeeeease include a link - it saves me a lot of time.  For example, Instead of saying "Jeff, did you see my last reflection?', say "Jeff, did you see my last reflection at: http://myblog.blogger.com/reflection3 )
  • Please post all of your daily reflections on your blogger.com blog - that makes it much easier for me to see all of your reflections at once.  If you want to make your blog private (so not everyone can read your reflections), watch this screencast.  If you don't' mind them being public, you don't need to do anything. 
  • For your Reading Reviews, please create them using Google Docs and share them with efl537@gmail.com. Do NOT email them directly to me.
  • You can see that I've added some content the EFL537.com front page. From now on, blog posts,  Delicious bookmarks tagged with 'efl537', 'How Do I...' questions, and audio posts will be automatically shown on the front page.  It will take up to one hour before they appear, so don't' be concerned if you don't see them right away.
 Day #4 Agenda

We are going to continue working on Week#1 skills.  If there are enough people who have developed their audio recording skills and we have enough time, I'd then like to have you record small group discussions (described below).

Tasks

1)  I can see that some of you are making  progress with Delicious.  Please remember...
  •  tag your bookmarks with the EFL/CALL related words like those shown in the Delicious Guide
  • do not use commas to separate tags, just leave a space  
    (listening activities audio)  <<< OK     (listening, activities,audio) <<< NOT OK
  • always include the tag 'efl537' if it's a bookmark for this class
I'd like everyone to have at least 7 EFL or CALL sites bookmarked and properly tagged by the end of class today.

2) Congratulations to Daothuy, Tu, & MinhTrinh for getting their audio recordings posted.  Several others got close, but  uploaded .wav files (not mp3's). Figuring out how to export as an mp3 with Audacity can be somewhat difficult. This screencast should be helpful, but probably the easiest way to figure things out is to ask your classmates who have already done so.
Continue  working on Week#1 Skills & Assignments
(we're aiming to finish these by the end of this week, not today)
Skill Guide Screencast Task (see bottom of each Skill Guide)
Desktop Management save and rename a file, email it to efl537@gmail.com as an attachment
Google Docs Create a Google Doc and share it with  efl537@gmail.com
Social Bookmarking Bookmark at least 3 CALL sites
Audio Recording & Editing  Create an mp3 file, upload it to EFL537.com
Activity & Quiz Creation Create a Hot Potatoes activity, attach to an EFL537.com blog post.
Screencast - How to post your Hot Potatoes Activity on EFL537.
Presentations Create a presentation (with Powerpoint, Google Presentations, or Open Office), upload it to your Slideshare account
  • Continue Exploring  the CALL Buffet
    Please go to EFL Sites Buffet Page  
    This is a list of websites and online resources that can be used for language learning. Please explore these sites during the next few days at your own pace. You DO NOT need to look at everything.   If a site is loading slowly, not working properly, or just not interesting, move on to something else. If your explorations lead you to a site that's not on the list below, that's fine.   When you find something you think is useful, please bookmark it with Delicious.  Feel free to share information with your classmates as you make interesting discoveries.
Small Group Discussions

If enough people are able to use audacity to record audio files, I would like you to break into 4 groups of 3-4 people each. Each group can sit around one computer that is set up for recording and pass the microphone around as different people talk.  Take turns answering and discussing the questions below.  Total time for discussion should be between 10~20 minutes.
  • Based on what you've seen so far, which tools and websites do you think will be most useful to you in your teaching (and learning)?
  • What else are you especially interested in learning during this course that will help you in your teaching and personal computer use?
  • Feel free to bring up and discuss any other topics of interest that you want to share with your classmates and/or Jeff. 
When you are finished, one person can export the recording as an mp3 file and upload it to EFL537.com. I look forward to listening to your discussions.
  • This week's readings:
  • Write a daily reflection on your blogger.com blog. (blogger guide here)
    Share your  reflections on Day#1 of EFL537.

  • Post any questions in the How do I  forum at EFL537.com or plan to ask them during tomorrow's class.